Bye Bye Katharine, Arhus 29th June

We awoke at about 0700 and got up and were on our way to the bus station by about quarter past so, obviously, got there a little early and had a potter about to a golf course around the corner before coming back to the stop with about 5 minutes to go before the bus was due. By about two minutes past it’s supposed arrival time we were wondering whether we had got the times wrong and that the Sunday bus times were different. The bus appeared just as we were starting to google times again. The bus ride to Arhus was in bright sunshine (and a stiff breeze from the W) and we passed through rolling countryside all wonderfully green and pleasant, there are loads of deciduous trees which is good, I’d expected to mostly see coniferous.

Browsing through things to do in Arhus, for myself, the Viking museum seemed a good bet being in the centre, close to the cathedral. Once at the bus station we walked the 200 or so metres to the train station where we said our good byes, quite sad to see her go, Katharine went to catch her train and I went, initially, for a wander around the harbour because the museum didn’t open until a quarter past ten. There was a big cruise ship in and at one of the wharves a suppuration of passengers was engorging the area. Many getting onto buses for the 300m distance into town. I, inevitably, ended up on a commercial dock where a   small general cargo ship was berthed and a Patrol boat was moored. I walked through or around a building site, wondering whether I’d be able to get out as, the further I went, the more it seemed to only be a building site and not a place for pedestrians. However, following the walkways, I did end up finding an exit back out onto the main road that followed the harbour perimeter.  Walking up again towards the town a colourfully dressed student with bright purple wellies came across the road looking mildly embarassed and went into the supermarket. I found a shopping centre which had it’s doors open but no businesses but took the opportunity to have a pee. I then thought it was close enough to time to wander towards the viking museum, and made my way in that direction. On a main street there was a girls choir singing  which was a welcome distraction, not  just aurally.

  Soon I was close to the museum still a bit early  for it’s opening time and thought I’d have something for breakfast as we’d left the boat with out mucking about with breakfast etc.

There was a busy little cafe operating and I found a table in the shade, as the sun by now was bright and hot, and ordered a cappucino and plate of breads. The cappucino was perfect and the plate of breads surprisingly good, two slices each of rye bread, toasted,  sour dough and a croissant cut into two with enough butter, and jam to go around.

Whilst enjoying this the viking museum opened and some people were in and out within a few minutes which I put down to attention span issues. Once I’d enjoyed my breakfast I perused the depressing newspaper on my ‘phone and then, when I’d paid went across to the museum. One descends a flight of stairs to a largish room where there were some archeological exhibits, several  notice boards and a mock up of a trench house but, really, not that much. To be fair it was free and I hadn’t really researched it but had been expecting viking longships, battles, berserkers, pillage scenes and so on so was a little disappointing but informative none the less.  I made a point of reading all that was on offer and examining all the exhibits before exiting into the sun and making my way to the Cathedral where I was turned away because there was a service ongoing. Fair enough, it was Sunday. I wandered around the smaller streets in the area finding some beautiful buildings before coming back to the cathedral where a new service had started.

One thing I did want to do was pick up a local pay as you go sim card  with a different provider to my phone e sim so when I had no cover with one I might have it on the other and to save having to pair my ipad to my telephone all the time, so made my way back to the shopping mall and after walking around it and finding no telephone shops went to the loo, much busier now, and then found the information desk who pointed me down stairs  to the lower level  (which I had had a look around already) and 3 phone company shops there. I went to the telenor one and the nice lady there told me that there was no point in trying phone shops as they only sold subscription services but that if I went to a 7-11 shop I could buy a Lebara, pay as you go card.

I found the 7-11 at the station and bought a card for 5 quid and decided that I would head back to the boat and look at pilot books and so on for a bit. Back at the bus station the 123 bus pulled in, the correct one and a girl got off stumbled across the pavement to the hand rails and threw up. Her friend looked after her, it may have been that she was a graduate who had had too good a time the previous evening.

Back in Ebeltoft I went to the Rema 1000 shop to buy eggs and came away with various other bits and pieces too including a cheese slicer, as Katharine had been shocked that I had none. I examined, carefully, the computer cable section but couldn’t find a cable I need to convert a female usb normal to a female usbc, there are ones going to usbc but not to sockets just to plugs- I bought some ear poddy things in Inverness which have a usbc charge lead built in but I’ve no way of plugging them in. Not that it really matters they were an impulse buy which I’m not sure why I need.

I then studied pilot books and charts for places around Copenhagen and think I’ll head for Isefjord next in Sjaelland -the Island on which Copenhagen sits.’

I defrosted the freezer which seems to need doing every couple of weeks or the frost builds up to such an extent that one can’t open the lid.

There was a flea market in the car park opposite and although it was largely packing up I went for a look in case there were some nice mugs, - I have 4 big china mugs which I’ve noticed many people prefer to my stainless, insulated mugs but they have a small base which is not too suitable for boats. Anyway, there was nothing at the fleamarket.

I spent some time setting up the sim card, this meant putting it into my phone, although it is destined for my ipad, because although the ipad takes a sim it can’t send and receive calls or texts unless it’s not necessary. I signed into the Lebara system and created an account, the sim card came with about a pound’s worth of credit so I bunged another 20 quid onto it. Then looked to see about buying a data bundle. These seemed cheap enough and I tried to buy one but it wanted to charge my credit card again. That’s stupid I thought, it’s only 2 quid and I’ve 21 pounds credit. I tried downloading the app and found I couldn’t sign in because although the phone had chosen a complicated password for me it had forgotten to remember it. Having re set it to a simple memorable one it continued. Once downloaded I found  similarly in the app that it wanted to charge me again for data. I tried the help section but it didn’t work and the chat section  was only available during the working week. Once I’d sworn a bit and asked AI which said I would need to buy a data pack and pay for it again, I calmed down, realised it was the price of a couple of cigarettes or so and just paid the 19 kroner for the appropriate data and it now works fine, probably I’ll not think about it again and leave with 20 quid credit with Lebara.

Later I went to the place where Katharine and I had had lunch on  Saturday and had a simple but good meal of burger and chips with salad and pint of Tuborg.